Article

2008-03-07 Afghanistan

New Brit sniper rifle on duty against Talibunnies

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Posted by Steve White 2008-03-07 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 "Head shot!"

/Unreal Tournament

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-03-07 06:22|| 2008-03-07 06:22|| Front Page Top

#2 Reach out, reach out and touch someone . . .

Where did they get that oddball caliber? Who came up with 8.59mm, and why?

Posted by Mike 2008-03-07 09:18|| 2008-03-07 09:18|| Front Page Top

#3 Calibers dictate the round. It is enigmatic indeed why .01 caliber can have such a night-and-day difference in bullets, but it does.

Amusingly, the Russians always wanted their equipment to be just slightly larger than their enemies. Theoretically, this would mean that they could use the enemy ammo, but the enemy couldn't use theirs.

But practically, it meant that their enemies' ammo would hit dead on, but the larger Russian stuff would be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn.

To make things loopy, different manufacturers using the same diameter bullet will sometimes give it a different caliber *name*, even though the bullets are the same diameter.

For example the .221 Fireball, .222 Remington and .223 Remington all use the same bullet diameter, but the cartridges are different lengths.

NATO gets around different bullet lengths by using the "x" designator. For example the 7.62x51 NATO round.

It helps to be really, really, really anal retentive if you are a bullet designer.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-03-07 09:58|| 2008-03-07 09:58|| Front Page Top

#4 Where did they get that oddball caliber? Who came up with 8.59mm, and why?

IIRC, it's 8.58mm, and its actual name is .338 lapua magnum (US designed, with military use in mind, from the get-go as a step above the universal .30/7,62 calibers), and this is an heavier caliber that has been favored by europeans for some time now (it's the caliber of the standard french army sniper rifle), and is popular with US shooters too.

Posted by anonymous5089 2008-03-07 10:16|| 2008-03-07 10:16|| Front Page Top

#5 Some calibers are somewhat special in the accuracy department, and the .338 is one of 'em. Originally there were problems with the brass, that's where Lapua came in. The Lapua brass has both a thickness and hardness gradient that keeps them together under the high working pressures. Nice long range round, could have some use in African hunting, totally overkill for North American hunting...

Posted by Glereth Hatfield8822 2008-03-07 10:34|| 2008-03-07 10:34|| Front Page Top

#6 "totally overkill for North American hunting..."

But just right for Afghan hunting. They have extra large Bunnies there, ya know.

Posted by Rupert Chaimp5657 2008-03-07 11:11|| 2008-03-07 11:11|| Front Page Top

#7 It's a .338 like their old sniper rifles. The Lapua magnum is an exotic chamber with very subtle differences on the outside. Their round is probably somewhere in between a .338 winchester mag and a .338 Lapua mag.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-03-07 12:12|| 2008-03-07 12:12|| Front Page Top

#8 I've heard of .338 magnum; the metric-to-normal conversion was messing me up. Thanks for straightening me out.

Posted by Mike 2008-03-07 12:44|| 2008-03-07 12:44|| Front Page Top

#9 338 Lapua.

Best sniper round in the world.

My shoulder knows how damned hard they kick though. Sore when I fired a few at the range courtesy of our rich gun enthusiast who buys such exotic things. The rounds are not cheap, at least not for civilians.

Ballistically, its more accurate a round than the .50 BMG.

And I would not be surprised if they were using the Lapua loading. USSOCOM has been using them for a long time. It is allegedly designed for a headshot at 1000m.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-03-07 13:05|| 2008-03-07 13:05|| Front Page Top

#10 Dakota arms made a cheapo version of a .338 Lapua mag a few years ago called the longbough, it was going for a measley 6,000 USD back in 1998. And it didn't even have any field-time credentials.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-03-07 16:51|| 2008-03-07 16:51|| Front Page Top

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